EXCLUSIVE — The National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s leading advocacy organization for small and independent businesses, has endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for U.S. Senate.
“General Paxton has a long history of working with NFIB to advance pro-business policies for one of the most pro-business states in the country,” NFIB political director Louis Bertolotti told the Washington Examiner.
Bertolotti cited Paxton’s time in the state legislature and his record of demonstrating strong support for small businesses across Texas. “He is a small business owner himself who has promised to defend free enterprise in Washington,” Bertolotti added. “On behalf of the businesses we represent across the Lone Star State, NFIB is pleased to endorse Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate.”
“I am incredibly grateful to receive the endorsement of NFIB,” Paxton said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. “As a former small business owner myself, I understand the daily struggle business owners face as they work to carve out their own version of the American Dream.”
Paxton said he is “the only candidate in this race who has continually defended small businesses, and NFIB’s support is a testament to that fact.”
His opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, has been a vocal proponent of regulations that industry watchdogs have warned would harm Texas’s small businesses.
Talarico, while serving in the Texas House, wrote bills to repeal right-to-work laws, increase the state-mandated minimum wage, and impose one-size-fits-all paid leave requirements that would dictate how small employers run their benefits.
As a state lawmaker, Talarico also voted against a bill that would have prohibited local governments from shutting down businesses for failing to comply with COVID-19 mandates, voted in favor of allowing Texas to institute an income tax, and has received an “F” rating from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility in every legislative session he served.
Talarico is currently campaigning on expanding overtime eligibility and raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, though he would award tax credits and subsidies to help small businesses struggling to accommodate the wage hike. Such mandatory minimum-wage increases in other jurisdictions, bringing with them increased labor costs, have led small businesses to cut employee hours or eliminate jobs.
“My opponent is a radical socialist who would be devastating for those who courageously bet on themselves and dare to take the leap of opening their own small business,” Paxton told the Washington Examiner.
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NFIB’s endorsement announcement on Monday follows the small business association’s support of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Republican primary. After the incumbent senator lost the party’s nomination to Paxton, the NFIB’s endorsement of the attorney general in his Senate bid indicates that small business owners are coalescing behind the GOP nominee ahead of the general election in November.
Talarico’s campaign was contacted for comment.